Fahad Malik murder: IHC disposes applications to include ‘key evidence’

Court tells police to continue their investigations as per rules

ISLAMABAD: In what could be a blow for Raja Arshad Mehmood, the prime suspect in the murder of Barrister Fahad Malik, the Islamabad High Court on Tuesday disposed of four of his applications while directing the police to continue its investigations as per the rules.

Lawyer and businessman Malik, a nephew of former Senate chairman Muhammad Mian Soomro, was shot dead in Islamabad on August 15 after getting into an altercation with Mehmood.

Mehmood, however, had accused the police of excluding important pieces of evidence from their investigation.

In this regard, he had filed four separate applications with the IHC through his counsel Muhammad Ilyas Siddiqi, to include things such as fingerprint analysis and videos of the incident.

However, the judge on Tuesday disposed of the applications stating that “relief can’t be granted as desired by the petitioner.”

Seeking details of the questions “who the aggressor was, how long the occurrence took place for and who had initiated it,” the court had sought a record of the case.

Police officials presented the record which they had gathered so far before the court during Tuesday’s hearing, including photos and text messages exchanged by all relevant people associated with the case.

On reviewing the records, Siddiqi objected that the police had failed to submit videos made in Sector F-11 and near the Shalimar police station. He urged the court to make these videos part of the investigation.

The court asked the contending parties to “wait” for its orders. But later in the day and later announced the order, directing police to ‘act according to police rules”.

Key evidence

Earlier in his applications, Mehmood had requested the court to direct the police to collect evidence, including written and voice messages shared on different mobile applications by some women including, Shanzay Malik, Iqra Malik, Ayesha Malik and Sonu, as well as the complainant.

Mehmood’s counsel had claimed that the SHO was told to present the statements of the women on record but he had failed to do so.

The counsel had maintained that the SHO was further requested to take into possession all messages and photos delivered on Facebook and different e-mail accounts of the women, but he failed to do
that as well.

Siddiqi had claimed the police was “intentionally” shying from placing on record a compromise deed which was drafted by Malik when the two parties sat down at the police station shortly before the incident  took place.

In one of the applications, Siddiqi said the petitioner had challenged the prosecution over finger prints.

He said Mehmood’s finger prints can be sent to Forensic Science Lab (FSL) for comparison to prove whether he had handled the gun or not.

He claimed that the police has not sent the murder weapon to FSL for comparison owing to their alleged malafide intentions.

Siddiqi had requested the IHC to direct the police to obtain the FSL report and present it before a magistrate in the presence of the suspect and his counsel.

In another of his applications, Mehmood said that several videos of the incident were recorded which show what had exactly happened. He contended that videos shot at a café in F-11 and at the police station are important evidence.

“The petitioner has come to know that a video of the occurrence [shooting] is also available,” the counsel claimed.

He asked the court to direct the police to collect all videos and other evidence in order to determine the real facts of the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2016.